A modern chemistry classroom must be furnished with up to date equipment in order to provide students with adequate opportunity to learn. Many pieces of equipment which are basic to laboratory investigations cannot be replaced due to severely reduced department budgets.
The students who will use this equipment include 9th graders who are at-risk and disadvantaged by poverty and other social ills, and also 11th and 12th graders seeking challenges in college preparatory electives classes.
Despite their disadvantages, my students become inspired to pursue careers in medicine, engineering, and many of the other high-tech industries in our economy’s future over the course of their high school career. Their confidence and interest results from exposure to experiences in the lab classroom. The quality of technology that is available to students in their classroom is a key factor which limits my ability to provide students with the greatest possible advantage in these highly competitive fields. Our school is described as a low-income school, and the science curriculum offers one of the most promising routes to breaking the cycle of poverty.
My Project
The hotplate/stirrer is just one example of the kind of technology that transforms an under-resourced lab into a lab that can provide competitive preparatory experiences for students. Activities and laboratories that can be performed include acid-base titration, solubility curve construction, and investigations of reaction rates and aqueous solutions.
The equipment that a chemistry classroom requires, such as these hotplate/stirrers, are becoming impossible to purchase and replace as equipment budgets are reduced or eliminated.
Students' needs, however, are unchanged, and the vitality of laboratory work is crucial for students' potential success.
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